Part Three. Writings from the Arya (1914 – 1921 Part
Five, From the Bulletin of Physical Education (1949 – 1950)
Message
I take the opportunity of the publication of this issue
of the “Bulletin d’Éducation Physique” of the Ashram to give my blessings to the
Journal and the Association – J.S.A.S.A. (Jeunesse Sportive de l’Ashram de Sri
Aurobindo). In doing so I would like to dwell for a while on the deeper
raison d’être of such Associations and especially the need and utility for
the nation of a widespread organisation of them and such sports or physical
exercises as are practised here. In their more superficial aspect they appear
merely as games and amusements which people take up for entertainment or as a
field for the outlet of the body’s energy and natural instinct of activity or
for a means of the development and maintenance of the health and strength of the
body; but they are or can be much more than that: they are also fields for the
development of habits, capacities and qualities which are greatly needed and of
the utmost service to a people in war or in peace, and in its political and
social activities, in most indeed of the provinces of a combined human
endeavour. It is to this which we may call the national aspect of the subject
that I would wish to give especial prominence.
In our own time these sports, games and athletics have
assumed a place and command a general interest such as was seen only in earlier
times in countries like Greece, Greece where all sides of human activity were
equally developed and the gymnasium, chariot-racing and other sports and
athletics had the same importance on the physical side as on the mental side the
Arts and poetry and the drama, and were especially stimulated and attended to by
the civic authorities of the city state. It was Greece that made an institution
of the Olympiad and the recent re-establishment of the Olympiad as an
international institution is a significant sign of the revival of the ancient
spirit. This kind of interest has spread to a certain extent to our own country
and India has begun to take a place in
international contests such as the Olympiad. The newly founded State in
liberated India is also beginning to be interested in developing all sides of
the life of the nation and is likely to take an active part and a habit of
direction in fields which were formerly left to private initiative. It is taking
up, for instance, the question of the foundation and preservation of health and
physical fitness in the nation and the spreading of a general recognition of its
importance. It is in this connection that the encouragement of sports and
associations for athletics and all activities of this kind would be an
incalculable assistance. A generalisation of the habit of taking part in such
exercises in childhood and youth and early manhood would help greatly towards
the creation of a physically fit and energetic people.
But of a higher import than the foundation, however
necessary, of health, strength and fitness of the body is the development of
discipline and morale and sound and strong character towards which these
activities can help. There are many sports which are of the utmost value towards
this end, because they help to form and even necessitate the qualities of
courage, hardihood, energetic action and initiative or call for skill,
steadiness of will or rapid decision and action, the perception of what is to be
done in an emergency and dexterity in doing it. One development of the utmost
value is the awakening of the essential and instinctive body consciousness which
can see and do what is necessary without any indication from mental thought and
which is equivalent in the body to swift insight in the mind and spontaneous and
rapid decision in the will. One may add the formation of a capacity for
harmonious and right movements of the body, especially in a combined action,
economical of physical effort and discouraging waste of energy, which result
from such exercises as marches or drill and which displace the loose and
straggling, the inharmonious or disorderly or wasteful movements common to the
untrained individual body. Another invaluable result of these activities is the
growth of what has been called the sporting spirit. That includes good humour
and tolerance and consideration for all, a right attitude and friendliness to
competitors and rivals, self-control and scrupulous observance of the laws of the game, fair play and avoidance of the use of foul
means, an equal acceptance of victory or defeat without bad humour, resentment
or ill-will towards successful competitors, loyal acceptance of the decisions of
the appointed judge, umpire or referee. These qualities have their value for
life in general and not only for sport, but the help that sport can give to
their development is direct and invaluable. If they could be made more common
not only in the life of the individual but in the national life and in the
international where at the present day the opposite tendencies have become too
rampant, existence in this troubled world of ours would be smoother and might
open to a greater chance of concord and amity of which it stands very much in
need. More important still is the custom of discipline, obedience, order, habit
of team-work, which certain games necessitate. For without them success is
uncertain or impossible. Innumerable are the activities in life, especially in
national life, in which leadership and obedience to leadership in combined
action are necessary for success, victory in combat or fulfilment of a purpose.
The role of the leader, the captain, the power and skill of his leadership, his
ability to command the confidence and ready obedience of his followers is of the
utmost importance in all kinds of combined action or enterprise; but few can
develop these things without having learned themselves to obey and to act as one
mind or as one body with others. This strictness of training, this habit of
discipline and obedience is not inconsistent with individual freedom; it is
often the necessary condition for its right use, just as order is not
inconsistent with liberty but rather the condition for the right use of liberty
and even for its preservation and survival. In all kinds of concerted action
this rule is indispensable: orchestration becomes necessary and there could be
no success for an orchestra in which individual musicians played according to
their own fancy and refused to follow the indications of the conductor. In
spiritual things also the same rule holds; a sadhak who disregarded the guidance
of the Guru and preferred the untrained inspirations of the novice could hardly
escape the stumbles or even the disasters which so often lie thick around the
path to spiritual realisation.
I need not enumerate
the other benefits which can be drawn from the training that sports can give or
dwell on their use in the national life; what I have said is sufficient. At any
rate, in schools like ours and in universities sports have now a recognised and
indispensable place; for even a highest and completest education of the mind is
not enough without the education of the body. Where the qualities I have
enumerated are absent or insufficiently present, a strong individual will or a
national will may build them up, but the aid given by sports to their
development is direct and in no way negligible. This would be a sufficient
reason for the attention given to them in our Ashram, though there are others
which I need not mention here. I am concerned here with their importance and the
necessity of the qualities they create or stimulate for our national life. The
nation which possesses them in the highest degree is likely to be the strongest
for victory, success and greatness, but also for the contribution it can make
towards the bringing about of unity and a more harmonious world order towards
which we look as our hope for humanity’s future.
India has begun to take a place in
international contests such as the Olympiad. The newly founded State in
liberated India is also beginning to be interested in developing all sides of
the life of the nation and is likely to take an active part and a habit of
direction in fields which were formerly left to private initiative. It is taking
up, for instance, the question of the foundation and preservation of health and
physical fitness in the nation and the spreading of a general recognition of its
importance. It is in this connection that the encouragement of sports and
associations for athletics and all activities of this kind would be an
incalculable assistance. A generalisation of the habit of taking part in such
exercises in childhood and youth and early manhood would help greatly towards
the creation of a physically fit and energetic people.
